“Kotodama” by Les Von Losberg

Description

Harrison Council for the Arts Presents “Kotodama” Paintings by Les Von Losberg at the Harrison Public Library, Halperin Building, 2 Bruce Avenue, Harrison on view May 1-27 with an opening reception on May 4 from 7:00 to 8:50pm. The reception will include a short poetry reading and perhaps two songs composed by the artist.

“Kotodama,” a Japanese word meaning word spirit or spirit of language. The show explores ways in which language can broaden and deepen our understanding of how we relate to the world and how language itself works to create the world we experience.

Mr. Von Losberg reports:

I’ve been a poet for nearly 50 years, a singer/songwriter and a language and conceptual for 40 years. I met my wife, Merle Molofsky, in 1975, and in the spring of 1976 we founded Poets Union, a grassroots literary arts organization in Park Slope Brooklyn. Poets Union ran workshops in poetry, poetry in performance and fiction writing, sponsored salon-style readings and literary events, such as a 9-day poetry festival and literary-based films over a 10-year period.

During this time, I received an MFA in Fiction Writing from Brooklyn College, acted as a production and review editor—along with Merle, who holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia University—of Bitterroot Magazine, which at the time I understood to be one of, if not the oldest international poetry quarterly publishing at the time and which was edited by the late poet and kabbalist, Menke Katz. In the late 1970s, I began writing songs and singing them, a cappella, at poetry readings. I have published poems in newspapers and small press magazines over the years, as well as in book form, including Hexagram, A Dangerous Life, Making Sense of Foreign Currency, Correspondences, The Blind Inamorato and the Mute Inamorata (with Gene Alexander), and The Box Boy Poems. I continue to write, make art and have, for the past eight years, studied Japanese Taiko drumming, performing with White Plains Taiko, Sakura Taiko, Ninja Taiko, Kizuna Daiko and with ensembles composed of New York Suwa Taiko drummer from various groups.

This show at the Harrison Library is the fifth in which I’ve shown work this year. The other shows I’ve been in include a show at the Hammond Museum, two shows at the Blue Door Gallery and the current long-running show—“Word”—at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art.

Library hours are Mondays and Wednesdays 9:30 to 9:00pm; Tuesdays, Thursdays-Saturdays 9:30 to 5:30pm and Sundays 1:00 to 5:00pm. For info call the Library 914/835-0324 or see harrisonpl.org.